Lee Joon-seok, center, the captain of the sunken ferry Sewol in the water off the southern coast, arrives at a court which issues his arrest warrant in Mokpo, south of Seoul, South Korea, Friday, April 18, 2014. The investigation into South Korea’s ferry disaster focused on the sharp turn it took just before it began listing and on the possibility that a quicker evacuation order by the captain could have saved lives, officials said Friday, as rescuers struggled to find some 270 people still missing and feared dead. (AP Photo/Yonhap) KOREA OUT

Ever since the Titanic sank on its maiden voyage, carrying its captain and many of the passengers with it, the notion that the captain goes down with his ship has been ingrained in popular culture.

But now, for the second time in just over two years, a sea captain — first in Italy and now in South Korea — has been among the first to flee a sinking vessel, placing his own life ahead of those of his terrified passengers.

A much-publicized photo from the latest accident shows the Korean captain being helped off his own ship, the Sewol, stepping off the deck to safety even as scores of his ferry passengers remained below where they became trapped by rushing water and debris.

The behavior has earned the captain, Lee Jun-seok, 69, the nickname the “evil of the Sewol” among bloggers in South Korea. It also landed him in jail.

Maritime experts called the abandonment shocking — violating a proud international (and South Korean) tradition of stewardship, based at least as much on accepted codes of behavior as by law.

Capt. William Doherty, who has commanded U.S. Navy and merchant ships and managed safety operations at a major cruise line, called Lee’s decision to leave his 447 passengers “a disgrace” and likened it to the desertion of the stricken Costa Concordia cruise ship off the Italian coast in 2012.

“You can’t take responsibility, or say you do, for nearly 500 souls, and then be the first in the lifeboat,” Doherty said.

Civil courts in the United States have long viewed captains as having an obligation to protect their passengers and ships, but the cases in South Korea and Italy seem likely to test the notion of criminal liability in disasters.

The captain of the Italian ship, Francesco Schettino, is on trial on manslaughter charges after the sinking of his ship left more than 30 people dead.

The death toll in the South Korean accident stood at 49 as of early Sunday, with 253 missing.

Most countries do not explicitly state that a captain must be the last person to leave a distressed ship, experts say, giving captains the leeway to board lifeboats or nearby ships if they can better command an evacuation from there. South Korea’s law, however, appears to be explicit, allowing authorities to arrest Lee.

An international maritime treaty known as the Safety of Life at Sea — first adopted in 1914 after the Titanic disaster — makes a ship’s captain responsible for the safety of his vessel and everyone on board. The treaty also says that passengers should be able to evacuate within 30 minutes of a general alarm.

The Sewol took two hours to sink, but many survivors have reported that the crew told passengers it was safer to stay put inside the ship, likely dooming them. (The captain says he later issued instructions for passengers to evacuate the ship, but it remains unclear if that was conveyed to passengers.)

The U.S. Navy’s rules are more explicit than ones for commercial ships. Dave Werner, Naval History and Heritage Command spokesman, said rules dating to 1814 require a captain to remain with a stricken ship as long as possible and salvage as much of it as he can. “If it becomes necessary to abandon the ship, the commanding officer should be the last person to leave,” regulations state.

The list of captains who have refused to abandon ship is a long one.

The Titanic’s captain, E.J. Smith, probably was steaming too fast when the giant ship hit an iceberg, but he later won praise for helping to save more than 700 lives. He insisted that women and children be evacuated first, and he stayed near the bridge as the ship went down.

When the Navy’s first Cold War spy submarine, the Cochino, caught fire and was about to sink in the Barents Sea in 1949, Cmdr. Rafael Benitez refused to abandon the surfaced submarine even after all his men had run across a wooden plank connecting them to another vessel in rough seas. Benitez, who was hoping to save the Cochino, crossed to safety only when the men on the other vessel yelled that his sub was sinking fast.

This sense of duty was part of the narrative in the crash of US Airways Flight 1549, which was forced to ditch in the Hudson River in New York after losing power when birds struck both engines. After landing the plane, Capt. Chesley Sullenberger twice checked the cabin to make sure no one was left before leaving the aircraft that quickly was filling with water.

The Sewol had at least one heroine.

A student who survived reported that a crew member named Park Ji-young, 22, had helped teenagers to get life jackets and escape by urging them to jump into the frigid waters of the Yellow Sea, where rescue boats were waiting. She stayed behind without a life jacket for herself despite the youngsters’ entreaties to jump with them. “After saving you, I will get out,” she said. “The crew goes out last.”

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